NEUROIMAGING EVIDENCE SUPPLEMENT

A. C. Applebee and A. D. Masters

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Why This Section Includes Brain Images: A Note on Scientific Communication

This section includes neuroimaging data and brain images. We do so transparently, citing two reasons:

Reason 1: The Evidence Is Relevant

The neuroimaging literature directly supports the thesis that:

Acute stress impairs prefrontal cortex function (the neural substrate of rational decision-making)

Pre-interrogation detention produces measurable brain changes that increase suggestibility

Autistic individuals process social information differently at the neural level (not worse — differently)

The neural signatures of authentic cognitive effort are systematically misread by observers

Reason 2: Neuroimaging Information Increases Persuasiveness

Weisberg et al. (2008) demonstrated that explanations containing neuroscience information are rated as more satisfying, even when that information is logically irrelevant. In their study:

"Subjects in the two nonexpert groups additionally judged that explanations with logically irrelevant neuroscience information were more satisfying than explanations without. The neuroscience information had a particularly striking effect on nonexperts' judgments of bad explanations, masking otherwise salient problems in these explanations."

This effect — the "seductive allure of neuroscience" — has been replicated for textual neuroscience information (Weisberg et al., 2015; Fernandez-Duque et al., 2015).

We include brain images because the data shows they increase belief, and because the underlying evidence is genuinely supportive of our thesis. This is not manipulation — it is strategic scientific communication. The behavior